Electric power hand tools such as portable electric jigsaws are well known in the art and have been the subject of continued research and development that has resulted in commercial products that are more convenient to operate and enable users to produce superior results. Generally, they include an AC, DC or universal electric motor contained in a housing and a tool such as a saw blade operatively driven by the shaft. In the case of a jigsaw as well as other cutting tools, a foot assembly is provided which is connected to the base of the tool housing and generally comprises a flat bottom surface platform for engaging a work piece during operation.
Most jigsaws and some other power tools have a foot assembly that can be tilted relative to the tool housing so that cuts can be made at an angle to achieve a beveled cut. While foot assemblies that can be tilted have been known in the art for decades, many of the early and some of the recent mechanisms for adjusting and/or locking the foot at a desired angle to the tool housing are often cumbersome to use. A screwdriver, wrench, or the like is often required to tighten one or more threaded locking members such as bolts, which can be time consuming and even difficult if one does not have the appropriately sized and configured tool at hand. Sawdust and other debris created by the jigsaw can also combine with saw lubricants to foul the threaded locking member.
Some hand tools have an onboard locking lever to lock the foot in place at a desired orientation to the tool housing, which solves the problem of having the correct tool at hand, but often such locking levers were relatively costly to manufacture and cumbersome to install and adjust. Some hand operating levers may not conveniently provide the requisite holding strength, which when coupled with the substantial vibration developed during operation of a jigsaw can result in an undesirable change in the orientation angle of the foot.
Other solutions to movement of the foot have included foot assemblies that combine an onboard hand operable locking lever in combination with a plurality of guide openings that are selectively engageable with a locking extension which minimizes the possibility of the orientation angle changing during use.